Abstract

Research argues that children are becoming disengaged from their local, natural environments. The study sought to map children’s interests in, and concern for, their local, natural environments. Because the attitudes and understandings that children have of their world are formed through interaction with their world, their society, their education and their environment, such attitudes and understandings will in turn, determine how they will interact with their environment as adults. Thus, two diverse groups of children in two diverse settings, one group in rural Australia and one group in urbanized Singapore, were selected to understand what interests and concerns each group of children had for their own local, natural environment as well as the environments of others. Data was collected through interviews with the children, observations and from the drawings and storytelling in postcards which children used to communicate with each other for three months. The collected data was then analysed through open coding and themes and cross-referenced to developmental stages of children’s art using arts-based methodologies. The paper discusses from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective how two diverse groups of children understand their local, natural environments as well as the environments of others.